The European Optimist Championship took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, last week and was represented by the Irish team;
- Abigail Murphy (Royal St George Yacht Club)
- Maeve Donagh (Royal St George Yacht Club / Lough Derg Yacht Club),
- Carolina Carra (Royal St George Yacht Club)
- Max O’Hare (Royal St George Yacht Club)
- Rory Whyte (Royal Cork Yacht Club / Waterford Harbour Sailing Club)
- Jude Hynes Knight (Tralee Bay Sailing Club)
- Conor Cronin (Royal St George Yacht Club / Malahide Yacht Club)
Forty-seven nations were represented by two hundred and ninety-two sailors, the largest ever European Optimist championships in the fifty years it’s been running.
The dinghy park for the European Optimist Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece
Conditions were mostly light to medium, between five and eight knots in a short chop. It was warm with days of up to thirty-five degrees, which, given predicted temperatures in Greece for next week, will seem cool in comparison. Shade and hydration were the key to keeping concentration in tricky conditions.
The girls, racing in their own qualifying fleets of two, sixty-five strong fleets (one hundred and twenty in total) for the first three days, achieved some super results, with top fifteen scores amongst them.
At the end of the three qualifying days, Abigail Murphy made it through to the gold fleet, with Maeve Donagh and Carolina Carra qualifying for the silver fleet.
Irish Boys European Optimist Championships Team: L-R, Max O’Hare, Conor Cronin, Rory Whyte, Jude Hynes Knight
The final two days saw the girls race in their respective gold and silver fleets amongst tough competition but managed some super top ten results again, leaving Abigail Murphy in sixty-first place overall, Maeve Donagh in seventy-seventh and Carolina Carra in one hundred and second.
In the one hundred and sixty-six strong boys fleet, the Irish boys secured some good results over the three days of qualifiers in their respective groups of fifty-five boats with some top fifteen places amongst them also.
All four boys qualified for bronze fleet and secured some superb top ten results amongst them over the final two days, leaving Conor Cronin in one hundred and fourteenth place overall, followed closely behind by Max O’Hare in one hundred and sixteenth, Rory Whyte in one hundred and thirty-seventh and Jude Hynes Knight in one hundred and fifty-seventh.
Huge thanks go to IODAI, especially Steve and Lorraine O’Sullivan, for organising all of the logistics and wonderful team gear, and Yvonne St Leger, Team Manager, for taking such good care of the sailors shoreside and Soren Laugesen in his second year as European Team coach for his coaching skills.
Results here
